Stocks Take Drubbing After President Obama ‘Horses’ Around With Romney In 3rd Debate:
Stocks sold off today and had the second 200-point decline in 3 days The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 241 points to 13,102. Poor earnings news contributed to the continued slide and some investors may have pulled out of equities short term after the presidential debate last night. Mitt Romney had a defensive posture in the final debate and didn’t take it to President Obama who was on the attack. President Obama also had several zingers that were well timed and delivered, such as referring to ‘horses’ and ‘bayonets’ to counter Romney on defense spending.
Romney played the debate cool and seemed as if he was already winning which some political strategists thought was a good idea while others wanted a feisty, bickering challenger. President Obama would have looked more like a challenger instead of the incumbent if he didn’t have so many zingers that caught the attention of any nonpartisan observer. President Obama’s performance won’t slow down Mitt Romney’s momentum and voters are most likely to pay more attention to the economy which nullifies last nights debate results to some degree. Romney was strongest when it counted and on the topic he needs to sway voters on in all the debates regarding the economy.
The stock market didn’t like what they saw last night in our opinion but this may have been a knee-jerk reaction to a continued downside as equities look for new support levels. We remain neutral on the market in general short term but we are now looking for opportunities carefully.
